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Fire lookout · Curry County, Oregon

Bear Camp Basin Lookout Site

Also known as Bear Camp

Curry County, OR lookout site: platform c.1918, shake cabin 1924, L-4 cab 1932; staffed into the 1940s and removed or destroyed in 1965; no current site report.

Gone: The lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left. The L-4 cab was removed or destroyed in 1965; no source describes what remains

Visit & stay

Gone: site only. The lookout no longer stands, so there is nothing to climb or rent.

Access

Access unknown

We do not know the access rules. Check with the land manager before you go.

Road to the top?
Unknown

Facts

Status
Gone
Type
Ground-level cabL-4 cab (1932), after a 1924 shake cabin and a c.1918 10-foot platformThe design: L-4
Built of
WoodGoing by its design; no source says so in words.
Built
1914
Height
Unknown
Elevation
4,973 ft (1,516 m)
Agency
U.S. Forest Service
Land
Federal land
Location
Curry County, Oregon
Coordinates
42.63239, −123.83138
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 9 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-or-bear-camp-basin

View from the cab

What the lookout saw from its cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

This lookout is gone. The view is reconstructed from its recorded site and a typical height for a lookout like it.

Downloads about 3.5 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1914 BuiltNewspaper item (Siskiyou Bulletin) says Charles Simons erected a sort of tower at his lookout. Conflicts with the c.1918 platform date in the register and firelookout.com.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  2. 1914 First staffedCharles Simons at Bear Camp, described as the lookout (Siskiyou Bulletin, August 1914)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  3. 1915 EventMaterial for the Bear Camp lookout cabin on the ground; to be built on the California Bulletin plan (Siskiyou Bulletin). Not clearly the 1924 shake cabin.Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  4. 1918 Built10-foot platform built around 1918 (register); about 1918 (firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  5. 1919 StaffedCharles Simons back at Bear Camp after military training (Siskiyou Bulletin)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  6. 1921 EventBear Camp received one of four fire finders issued to lookouts in the county (Grants Pass Daily Courier, quoted by Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1922 EventCabin found broken into in June; most equipment moved out or knocked down (Siskiyou Bulletin)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  8. 1924 BuiltShake cabin built in 1924 (register; firelookout.com)Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  9. 1927 StaffedJ.P. Emery worked every summer since 1927 as lookout-fireman and lookout (Siskiyou Bulletin, 1932)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  10. 1932 BuiltL-4 cab replaced the shake cabin in 1932 (register; firelookout.com). Forest Lookouts describes the 1932 house as an Aladdin style lookout house.Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com, oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  11. 1932 FireEmery found and put out two small fires near his station (Siskiyou Bulletin, September 1932)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  12. 1933 FireLookout Lawson Thomas reported smoke to Rand Ranger Station; a 15-man crew was on its way to the fire by 7:35 a.m. (Forest Lookouts, August 1933)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  13. 1941 StaffedStation staffed 100 days; reported to the Rand Ranger Station by forest telephone lineSource: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  14. 1943 EventAircraft Warning Service station 'George 8-2' activated June 10 and deactivated October 16, 1943 (Forest Lookouts)Source: oregonlookouts.weebly.com
  15. No record between 1943 and 1965
  16. 1965 RemovedL-4 cab removed in 1965 (register); firelookout.com says destroyed in 1965Sources: firetower.org, firelookout.com
  17. No record between 1965 and 2010
  18. 2010 Added to the Former Fire Lookout Sites RegisterDate registered per FFLOS detail page: November 18, 2010Source: FFLOS register entry
  19. TodayGoneThe lookout no longer stands. Only the site is left.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 9 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Bear Camp Basin, also called Bear Camp, is a lookout site at 4,973 feet in Curry County, Oregon, on the Siskiyou National Forest.1,2,3

The earliest structure is hard to date. A 1914 newspaper item, quoted by Forest Lookouts, says Charles Simons had built some kind of tower at his lookout, which gave a much better view.3 The Former Fire Lookout Sites register instead dates a 10-foot platform to around 1918, and firelookout.com gives about 1918 as well.1,2

A shake cabin built in 1924 replaced the platform.1,2 A 1915 item described a cabin being built on the California Bulletin plan, and the sources do not say whether that was the same building.3 In 1932 an L-4 cab replaced the shake cabin.1,2 Forest Lookouts describes that year's house as an Aladdin style lookout house.3

Charles Simons was back on the job at Bear Camp in 1919, after military training.3 The Siskiyou Bulletin reported in 1932 that J.P. Emery had spent each summer since 1927 in lookout work.3 In 1941 the station was staffed for 100 days.3

In September 1932 Emery was sent to two small fires near his station and put both out.3 In August 1933 lookout Lawson Thomas reported a smoke to the Rand Ranger Station, and a 15-man crew was on its way to the fire by 7:35 in the morning.3

Forest Lookouts also lists an Aircraft Warning Service station, George 8-2, that was active from June 10 to October 16, 1943.3

The register says the L-4 cab was removed in 1965.1 Firelookout.com says it was destroyed that year.2

No source we read describes what remains of the lookout at the site today, or whether the public can reach it.

  1. Bear Camp Basin Lookout Site, Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org), http://firetower.org/lookouts/us/or/bear-camp-basin-lookout-site/ (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  2. Bear Camp Basin Fire Lookout Cabin, firelookout.com, https://www.firelookout.com/or/bearcampbasin.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩
  3. Bear Camp, Forest Lookouts (oregonlookouts.weebly.com), https://oregonlookouts.weebly.com/bear-camp.html (accessed 2026-10-09). ↩

Photos

Photo of Bear Camp Basin Lookout Site
Photo: Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (FFLOS) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, what it is built of, register numbers, agency, ownership, dates, photos, links Former Fire Lookout Sites Register (firetower.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA) - US lookout lists Gave us: type, status, register numbers, links Forest Fire Lookout Association (firelookout.org) · No licence stated; facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. firelookout.com -- Rex Kamstra's Forest Fire Lookout Page Gave us: links firelookout.com · No licence stated on the site; facts only (coordinates, elevation, built/destroyed years, design, agency). Photos mirrored with the site's stated credit. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- western US (Ron Kemnow's weebly sites) Gave us: links Ron Kemnow's Forest Lookouts sites (westlookouts, californialookouts, idaholookouts, montanalookouts, oregonlookouts and washingtonlookouts .weebly.com) · No licence stated; facts only (county, land manager, status word, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, township-range-section, height and design hints, links). The site's own newspaper quotes, citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  5. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, status, agency, staffing, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

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